ACTOR Antonio Banderas has opened up about his years in Hollywood, revealing that he always felt his life in Los Angeles would be temporary and that he was ultimately meant to return to his hometown of Malaga, Spain. Banderas moved to the Malibu area in the 1990s to be with his then-partner Melanie Griffith and her two children, Alexander Bauer, now 40, and Dakota Johnson, 36. Although he described those years as exciting and memorable, the actor said he never b e l i e ve d M a l i b u w o u l d be his p e r - manent home. “Those were beautiful, exciting years. But I always had this sense of provisionality that it was not going to last my whole life,” Banderas told People in an interview. “I knew that Malaga was there, my hometown. I was not supposed to be in Malibu, but in Malaga.” Banderas and Griffith married in 1996 and welcomed their daughter, Stella Banderas, 29, that same year. The couple eventually divorced in 2015. The actor later faced a major health scare in 2017 when he suffered a nearfatal heart attack, an experience he has said fundamentally changed his outlook on life.

 

“Mine was a really serious warning,” he told The Times in March. “Faced with death, it made me look back and realise that I am, in fact, a theater actor.” Banderas, who received a Tony nomination in 2003 for his lead performance in the musical Nine, subsequently made significant changes to his lifestyle. He quit smoking, sold his private jet and eventually returned to Malaga, following what he described as his true calling, according E! News. The Mask of Zorro and Puss in Boots star now lives in Malaga with his longtime girlfriend Nicole Kimpel and runs Teatro del Soho, a not-for-profit theatre in the city.”I have never been so happy,” the 65-year-old actor told People. “It keeps me in touch with my roots, my neighbourhood, my people. I haven't lost that connection over the years. Quite the opposite.” Despite making Malaga his home, Banderas continues to visit Los Angeles and maintains a close friendship with Griffith, the relationship that originally brought him to the city. “If not my best friend, Griffith is one of my best friends,” he told People in an interview. “When I go to Los Angeles, we get together anyway, we got a lot of fun. We laugh and we just... It's a very healthy thing, and it was very healthy for our kids.” ■